It is often desirable to separate or prevent contact between particulate solid containing carbonaceous and aqueous liquids. For example, drilling fluids (often referred to as "muds") are normally present in oil and other similar wells at the time of cementing a casing into a borehole with an aqueous cement slurry. The mud and cement are not always compatible with each other. The incompatibility of an aqueous cement slurry with an oil based mud can be of such severity that a mixture of the two will form an unpumpable mass. When this happens in a borehole, the cement slurry cannot be pumped or displaced. Casing, tubing or drill pipe will be left full of set cement which require costly drilling out or in some cases develops into a situation that cannot be corrected. In the latter instance, a costly oil, or other similar well, may have to be abandoned.
One procedure for removing the mud is merely to attempt to displace it with the cement slurry. However, as indicated, this is not always possible. It is desirable to achieve good mud removal ahead of the cement to improve bonding between the set cement, the borehole wall and the casing.
A limited attempt has been made to interpose a liquid spacer composition between a cement slurry and mud to improve mud displacement. The use of water or oil ahead of the cement slurry has been a common practice for many years. It is primarily thought of as a flushing agent and a means for physically separating the mud and the cement slurry. However, tests have shown that most of the partially dehydrated mud cake retained on the borehole wall cannot be removed under normal circulating conditions.
To be effective, the spacer composition should have the following characteristics. The spacer should be compatible with both a carbonaceous and aqueous media, that is, an oil-based drilling mud and an aqueous cement slurry and with any combination of the systems. This compatibility should also exist at the downhole temperatures and pressures. It is also desirable to leave these surfaces water wet so that the aqueous cement can firmly bond to the pipe and the formation. The liquid spacer also should be readily adaptable to a wide variety of oil-based muds and cement slurries. Likewise, the density of the spacer composition should be readily variable in order to match the densities of the fluids to be removed from a well and the like.
The present invention concerns a liquid spacer composition which successfully accomplishes most of the desired characteristics set forth above. It can also be employed as a spacer, for example, in pipe lines, between hydrocarbonaceous and nonhydrocarbonaceous fluids.